Want to know how the Big Bang sounded?!

My head hurts when I think about the Big Bang  – the moment when the universe started. How did something come out of nothing? Is there a beginning to time? Is there a multiverse? Well, I didn’t quite get the definitive answers to these questions when I attended a lecture by Professor Andy Parker, the head of Cambridge University’s particle physics department, but I did learn what the Big Bang sounded like!

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My 5 Rules Of Love

It’s Valentine’s Day – a time to buy gifts for our loved ones. But we can also think more deeply about our relationships. I’ve being doing that and also asking others who have been in loving relationships for 20,30 or even 50 years. From these conversations, I’ve discovered the 5 golden rules of love!: Continue reading “My 5 Rules Of Love”

The Sins Of Isaac Newton (3 min read)

In Western society, there is a common narrative around the history of science and religion. It argues that we were on the right track of rationality and science with the classical Greeks like Plato and Socrates. Then we had a long dark ages where superstition and religion dominated. But from around the 1500s we got back on track with the Renaissance  with figures like Da Vinci, Galileo and Isaac Newton. Continue reading “The Sins Of Isaac Newton (3 min read)”

How We Are Being Fooled By Words (2 min read)

Words have been a primal force of humanity for thousands of years. Take the famous line from the bible  “In the beginning, there was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God”  (Gospel of John, 1:1).This clearly emphasises the immense power of words.

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Recovering the Lost Art Of Chivalry (3 min read)

noun ​ /ˈʃɪv.əl.ri/  1) very polite, honest, and kind behaviour, especially by men towards women 2) the system of behaviour followed by knights in the medieval period of history, that put a high value on honour, kindness, and courage

Chivalry sounds so old-fashioned, but if any tradition needs to be revived perhaps it should be this one. What sparked my interest is a 10th-century book I stumbled across called “The Way Of Chivalry”.

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What the Chinese Thought of the British Empire In the 18th Century (2 mins)

I was brought up with a very western-centric view of the world, and culture continues to frame things in that way. It is therefore intriguing to view the world from a completely different perspective. History can provide a very real way of doing that. One example of this is when the British Empire encountered the Chinese.

The British Empire, one of the largest in history, went through several phases. One critical phase was the American War Of Independence when the colonists in North America broke away from the Empire in 1783. While it did stop British expansion in the west, it resulted in them focusing on the East. Eventually, it lead to the British Raj in India and the next phase of the British Empire.

It also saw them have more contact with the Chinese. At the time, the British were allowed to trade in the Canton port (later Hong Long), but they weren’t allowed a presence in mainland China.  What many history books fail to mention is that though the British (along with possibly the French) were the largest European powers, they weren’t the largest in the world. Continue reading “What the Chinese Thought of the British Empire In the 18th Century (2 mins)”